The Turning Point
By
The Sword Maker
The_sword_maker_lives@hotmail.com
Disclaimer: Gargoyles is © Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these rights is intended and I seek no monetary gain through this story. This story line pick up shortly after the Goliath Chronicles episode "…For It May Come True." "Genesis Undone" (where the clones die) never happened.
Previously, on Gargoyles:
Atop the clock tower, the Gargoyles await dawn. "Elisa, I--" Goliath begins. "Yeah, I know," interrupts Elisa. "You're as relieved as I am that things are back to normal." "That's not what I was going to say--" The sun rises, and Goliath turns to stone. "I know... but that's the way it is.""The Mirror"
The sun set, and an ancient magic stirred. From within seven statues of stone, life suddenly surged outward. Stone became flesh until only a thin layer of stone separated flesh and air. Roars that would send great lions fleeing for cover split the still night air as the statues reared tall, spraying stone shards in all directions. The beings relaxed and stretched, taking a few moments to brush off some clinging fragments of stone.
From his solitary perch on the highest turret, an enormous gargoyle looked down upon his clan. His mind was already forming patrol assignments, but there was a niggling little voice in the back of his mind that insisted on reliving what had happened some days before. Dismissing it with an irritable growl, he stepped off of his perch and flared his wings just enough to cushion his landing; he wanted his clan to know he was there, but he didn't have to shatter the stones to do so. Idle chitchat stalled as the clan turned towards their leader.
Goliath smiled faintly as he looked over his clan. Hudson stood, firm and proud despite his advanced years. Ideally the aged warrior would be allowed to rest and teach the hatchlings the history of their kind and the stories of the past, but they were only seven and there were no hatchlings. Not yet, thought Goliath with a smile as his gaze fell upon his daughter. Angela had become a great asset to the clan, and not just for her potential to bear young. While at first the issue of who would be her mate seemed to be limited to Brooklyn, his Second, and Broadway, in recent weeks it had been Broadway who was with her most often. A faint shuffling and a low growl came from his lower left, and Goliath's gaze fell upon Bronx. The ever-intuitive watchbeast knew that the clan's leader was distracted, and had been for some time now, but also seemed to instinctively know that this was something that Goliath had to work out for himself.
Goliath's gaze fell upon Lexington next. So different from his rookery brothers, Lexington had almost seemed to become more human than gargoyle as more time passed in this future world. All of the clan had adjusted, but Lex seemed to have truly found his home here. Goliath shuddered faintly at the thought that this young warrior, who had proved so valuable to his clan in the here and now, would have been seen as nearly useless a thousand years ago. To be sure, those with web-wings were the fastest, and always would be, but their small stature made it difficult to fight or disarm enemies while in the air. The web-wings had, sadly, been almost exclusively rookery keepers and messengers. The rank of warrior had seemed impossible to reach, but Goliath knew that he wouldn't trade Lexington for any four warriors. An illogical choice, but Goliath knew the validity of his decision.
After admonishing his clan to stay low and in the groups he would assign, he gave out patrol assignments. Within moments, the Trio was headed for the docks and Hudson was off to check the business district with Angela. Goliath watched as they departed and knew that a certain gargoyle was most likely upset at the assignments.
"Calm down, Broadway," advised Lexington. "He knows what's happening between you and Angela."
"It doesn't seem that way," grumbled the large turquoise male. "For the last few days, he's always sent her off with someone else."
Brooklyn laughed and snapped his beak in a playful manner. "He's expecting Elisa tonight, so a little blindness could be excused. Besides," he added with a shrug (no mean feat when you're gliding), "Angela knows whom she wants and she's turning blind eyes to me and Lex."
The reassurance of his two closest friends buoyed up the rotund gargoyle's mood. Shortly thereafter, all discussion was forgotten as they descended upon a roving gang of rapists who seemed to have found their next victim.
"Why is it that Father has sent me off with everyone but Broadway every night for the last week?" asked Angela as she and Hudson rapidly tied up some would-be robbers.
"Ah, lass, it's nothing against your pairing," the old warrior said sagely. "It's just that since that night when most of the Quarrymen and Castaway himself were arrested, he's been very distracted."
"Distracted with what?" snarled Angela as she finished trussing up the last thug. "What's got him so addled that he's not paying attention to anything? Besides that, why has he not left on patrol at all since that night?"
"I don't know lass," answered Hudson as he scaled a wall and took to the air, Angela right behind. "I just don't know."
"Owen?" The voice froze the pale man in his tracks. Owen Burnett turned slowly to see his employer emerge form his office.
"Yes, Mr. Xanatos?"
"Owen, I'm troubled by something I've noticed in the last few days." Xanatos's expression was indeed troubled. Owen nodded and followed the wealthiest man in Manhattan into his office. In all honesty, the dual being that was Owen and the immortal jester known as Robin Goodfellow had more than a clue as to what was on the mind of David Xanatos. Once inside, Xanatos motioned his majordomo into a seat and leaned against his desk. "I've noticed that there seems to be some distraction among the leadership of the clan."
Distraction, he calls it,
jeered the voice of the Puck. "How exactly do you mean, sir?" asked Owen, firmly telling the eternal imp inside his head to shut up.Xanatos glared at Owen for several long moments. "You can't have missed it. Goliath's been out in space for the last week. What happened the night of the raid that you're not telling me?"
Owen sat still, contemplating the reaction of Xanatos to what had happened. As he thought on those lines, the mind of the Puck drifted back to what had happened that night. He'd been right in the middle of teaching Alex how to sense spells and hostile intent as a step to producing magical wards for the castle when Alex's first tentative "sense" spell had returned a big signal. And a familiar one. He'd jerked around in shock to see Titania emerge from a gateway formed by one of her mirrors.
After his heart resumed beating, he'd boldly demanded (read: humbly asked) why Her Majesty was in Manhattan, and would she care to know what progress Alex had made in his studies. She'd politely checked over her grandson's progress, then had turned her attention back to the Puck. What happened next still blew his mind. She'd asked him to open a rift into an alternate world. While hemming and hawing, feigning awe and pride at being the one chosen to aid her, his mind had been screaming along at lightspeed, trying to figure out why she would come to him to do this thing. Oberon could do it, and the Three could very easily make a rift for her. Then his mind hit on it.
Alternate worlds were tricky things. And the rifts were dangerously unstable. He'd felt fear in that moment, realizing that the Queen knew he was capable of making a stable rift, and of sending living beings there and retrieving them at will. That kind of skill was a threat, as one who could do so could easily banish any of the Third Race, and they would not be able to return.
She'd known his fear, however, and assured him that she was not there to obliterate him. She did need a rift, however, and the Three, and even Oberon himself, could not be sure what world the rift would open to. The Puck was the only one who could. And he'd hid that bit of crucial information away for nearly three millennia.
He'd made the rift, however, and transferred Goliath's mind through, while holding the mind of his counterpart in limbo. He'd tried hard the whole time not to think about just how many ways he was breaking Oberon's Law of meddling with mortals and the even bigger law about only using his powers to train Alexander. With a clever bit of spell-weaving, he'd managed to create a loop in the timeline there and insert his Goliath for a few days. Once the little experiment had ended, he'd destroyed the loop, and that world's timeline had resumed, unaware of what had happened in that crucial slice of time. At the Queen's questioning glance as to his methods, he'd mumbled something about how Goliath would kill him if that other Elisa had ever really been in danger. He's then asked his Queen to tell Goliath that it had all been just a dream, something to show him what would have happened in a world where he'd been born human.
"I gave Alex a lesson on sensing magical spells and hostile intent. I believe that he will be able to generate semi-permanent protective wards around the castle in three weeks." Owen sat still, trying to figure a way to tell what had happened without letting on what had really happened. What a nightmare! Is this what they call a tension headache? came the sarcastic voice of the Puck. Shut up, snarled Owen into the silence of his mind. "Alex thought he'd detected a spell being cast in the city, but as he is so young, his range would have been necessarily limited to barely include the castle. Demona is the only known sorceress in the city at the moment, and she was most definitely not in the castle that night."
Xanatos folded his arms, looking hard at his assistant. Owen held his breath for several moments as his employer tried to delve into the secrets concealed within his mind. After what felt like an eternity, Xanatos nodded and thanked Owen for his time and dismissed him.
The door closed with a soft thud. Xanatos stood and walked around his desk to his chair. As he sat himself a hatch opened in the wall. Fox walked out and came to stand behind her husband. "Thoughts?" he asked as she leaned against his chair.
"There's something that he's not saying, but I don't think that it will be dangerous to either our son or the gargoyles," she said, flipping her long red hair back over her shoulders.
"That's the problem, Fox," said Xanatos, his voice tired and sounding twice his age. "We don't think there's any danger, but we have no proof." The two were silent; each lost in their own thoughts.
Owen walked into the nursery, where the youngest member of the Third Race was awaiting his ministrations. After changing the child's diaper, something that wasn't easy at all with only one hand, he settled back into himself. Outwardly, it was as if he'd died. His body went stiff, then went as limp as a puppet with cut strings. Just before he would hit the ground, a swirl of green light enveloped his body. The light faded, and the blond-haired blue-eyed man was gone. A short man with huge pointed ears, ageless yet sly eyes and waist-length white hair stood there. Cut that a little close didn't you? The Puck shook his head. "Can it, Owen." The fey lifted his charge from the table and settled into the chair. "What shall we teach you tonight, little prince?" he asked.
As always, a bubbling touch of innocence wafted through the jaded elf's mind, leaving behind a definitive demand: help Goliath. The elf was confused, and what followed was a strange, jumbled pattern of communication. The thoughts of the ancient elf and the toddler mixed and twined. Confusion. Unclear. Wants to be happy. Agreement. Plan! Confusion. What plan? Other place! It took Puck several moments to figure this one out, as the baby had no real concept of what he was trying to communicate. "The alternate universe," whispered the Puck in awe. But we left the baby here! cried Owen from the depths of his mind. Goliath was there. Puck slapped himself in the forehead as he saw what the baby had done. Sensing at once a great happiness and sadness over the exact same thing, the child had done what was only natural: he'd peeked into the sleeping gargoyle's mind and seen what had happened. The child wanted Goliath and Elisa to realize their love here. Denial. Already there. Just need push. A groan of pure horror threatened to burst from Puck's lungs. Geas! Only use magic to teach! Puck desperately hoped that the child wouldn't pursue this, but in vain.
*Then teach me to do it!
* The force of the command, and the need behind it, nearly blew Puck's head off. He stared in shock at the child who had only used feelings an desires to communicate, drawing on the intellect of the Puck to find what he could use best to make his teacher understand."It's not that easy, little prince," he began, only to be cut off by Alex's more typical communication. If it couldn't be done right away, then they'd do it in steps. Goliath deserved to be happy.
He stood, silent, the night breezes tugging at his wings, begging him to join them in their dance through the city that had become home to him. A soft footfall came from behind, silent enough that only a gargoyle's ears would hear it. A nose that put a bloodhound's to shame picked up a fragrance that was as familiar as his own skin. He involuntarily stiffened as memories surged forward of the last time he'd inhaled the heady scent that came from only one person.
"Hey, Big Guy," came the soft voice of Elisa Maza.
"Good evening, Elisa," he said as he turned slightly toward her. She came and leaned against the battlements next to him and they stood, silent, for several long moments, looking out over the city and letting the night touch them, its children.
"So why have you been avoiding me the last week?" she demanded suddenly. Goliath shivered slightly, feeling her eyes as they settled on his face. He could feel her eyes then begin to take in all the little postures that marked his increased agitation: tail tip quivering so hard that it was about to drill into the stone of the battlements, wings held in rigid lines tight against his back, all of his muscles taut.
"I have been … busy," he finished rather lamely, not meeting her eyes. After several long moments of intense scrutiny, she sighed.
"Ok, Goliath," she said quietly. Elisa tucked her hands into her pockets and turned to go. "My parents are arriving in town tonight. I was on my way to the airport and decided to stop by here and see if you were in." She started to walk away, then called over her shoulder; "My patrol tomorrow has been canceled since my folks are in town. They'd like to see you and Angela again." Without another word, she disappeared into the shadows of the castle.
Left alone on the battlements, the large lavender gargoyle slowly relaxed. Goliath walked heavily over to his perch, and picked up a largish shard of his own stone skin. He sat against the stones his people had bled and died defending and let out a heavy sigh. How could he tell Elisa that every time he saw her his mind flashed back to that dream Titania had given him? He leaned his head against the stone and remembered…
…that she was furious. He'd gone out and gotten himself attacked by those gargoyle monsters. He could hear the fury and murderous rage in her voice when she spoke those words. This was not his Elisa. His Elisa would not be saying such things…he'd jerked up short in his thoughts at that very moment. Elisa was not his, he thought fiercely as he walked into the bedroom in the home where he evidently lived with this Elisa. Elisa could never be his, no matter how much he wished otherwise. She was human and he was gargoyle, and they could never be mates. The frustration in him at this knowledge was enough to make him want to destroy everything in sight.
He'd slipped into the bed and almost immediately fallen asleep. Sometime later the woman who reminded him so much of the one he loved had climbed into the bed, but had kept her distance. But the night had been cold, and the covers inadequate, and eventually they had ended up in each other's arms, trying to ward off the chill. And as he breathed in her scent, desires long denied swarmed to the surface. He'd been half asleep at first, barely registering that what he was doing was really happening. And she'd been responding. Neither one truly awake enough to realize what was happening, and too overridden by their own instincts to have done anything had they awakened. He'd come to full alertness mere moments after it was over, and his traitorous libido had gleefully offered a clear and detailed memory of everything that had happened.
She'd not awakened, not fully anyway, and in moments was once more deeply asleep, her form curled around him. He'd lain awake the rest of the night, trying to ignore the beautiful woman in his arms. He'd desperately recited every bit of the Bible that the priest at Wyvern had so diligently drilled into his head as a hatchling. He'd counted backwards from a thousand in High Gaelic and then in Latin, trying to keep his mind off of the feel of her body against his. He's even tried to remember Demona, hoping that the raging anger her betrayal had sowed in him would take the place of the burning desire for the woman who was at that moment shifting in her sleep. The moment her body had moved, all thoughts of Demona, Latin, even Oberon himself had fled. Only Elisa remained, and he was perilously close to losing control again. She'd been awakened by the blaring of her alarm almost the moment he was about to lose his self-control, and had pulled away slowly. From her gaze, he'd gathered that she remembered what had happened, now that consciousness had returned.
Then, when all had been revealed to be a dream and he had once more found himself in his world, he'd been unable to control his reaction to her. Her scent reawakened all the memories that he'd desperately tried to bury. Like a scared hatchling he'd run from her, and had studiously avoided contact with her since. He crushed the shard to dust and sat, alone, on the tower.
Down in the nursery, Puck slowly came back to himself. The lesson he'd decided on was calling the memories of others to the tops of their minds, making it easy to know what they were thinking or what they had seen. He'd been unprepared for the depth of what had happened to the large gargoyle leader, though. After shielding Alex's mind when the action went to a XXX-rating, he'd pulled out a little himself. It was like standing outside of a room, listening to the muffled sounds that arose from people in the throes of passion. He'd known when that little episode was over, but seeing Goliath's reaction to awakening had been a surprise. He'd thought he'd taken advantage of the woman he loved. Puck hit himself in the head as hard as he could. He couldn't even talk to Goliath about what had happened without revealing his own complicity in it. And given Goliath's current state of mind, the half-ton gargoyle would likely kill first and never ask the questions after that you're supposed to. So whom could the Puck talk to?
Elisa walked into her apartment, her parents right behind her. Beth being along had been a surprise, but Elisa seemed to be ok with it. It didn't take long for her mother to realize that something was very wrong in Elisa's life. Beth twigged to it next, but Peter was clueless. Diane Maza smiled faintly and shook her head. She'd married the man because she loved him. A good thing too, as if she'd been looking for someone who was perceptive to the feelings of his children, she would never have married him. But then she never would have been truly happy, Diane reflected as she caught her youngest's eye.
The first unwritten law of nature is that women shall be able to communicate complex strategies and knowledge with only a glance, when it would take a man three hours of carefully scripted speech to accomplish the same. It was unfair, but that's the way life is. Two and a half glances later, Beth was on her way out the door, Peter Maza in tow. He'd been about to protest when he'd caught his wife's eye. The second law is, of course, that men are capable (sometimes) of realizing that they should make a hasty retreat and not argue. Peter hadn't been wasteful of his time with Coyote, so he was slightly more perceptive than the average man and got the message in only a minute or two.
Once the two extras were gone, Diane settled in to have a heart to heart with her eldest daughter. It didn't take long for Diane to get the gist of recent occurrences. Having paid careful attention to anything to do with the Quarrymen, she'd known that her daughter had helped bring most of them in. What had her daughter nearly in tears was the fact that Goliath was avoiding her.
"He's been my strength for as long as I can remember now, Mom," whispered Elisa as her mother held her in her arms. "I've depended on him to help me through the bad times, but now that we've got something to be happy for he's acting like I have the plague."
Diane sat with her daughter for the rest of the night, trying to help her daughter. Toward morning, as she tucked her exhausted daughter into bed, she came to the cold realization that she would be unable to anything until she had both sides of this story. As the sun rose, her gaze settled on the tallest point: the Aerie Tower, with Castle Wyvern settled on top.
Owen Burnett was surprised. It hadn't happened for a long time, but today he was actually caught completely flat-footed and tongue-tied. Standing in front of him, in the lobby of the Tower, was the two elder Mazas. Peter looked as cold as ever toward one of Xanatos's flunkies and Diane was only slightly less so. But they were asking permission to enter and visit with the gargoyles. Once Diane had achieved that goal, she informed her husband that he was to keep Elisa away from the Tower unless specifically called.
Ascending the tower in the express elevator, Owen wondered what he could possibly say. 'Hi, I'm one half of a dual entity who's the brother of your local deity, Anansi' didn't seem like the best way to break the ice, however. They arrived at the top of the castle just moments before the clan awoke. Goliath turned, as if sensing those behind him. Gargoyles, being highly intelligent creatures, have great capacity to understand motivations. After dismissing the clan on patrol (Angela went with Broadway- something that made the two of them very happy), he turned to Diane and cast a steady glare at Owen. Owen, not one to miss much, immediately proffered an excuse and vanished into the castle.
The human-disguised fey raced with unseemly haste to the nursery, where he let the Puck take over. After quickly rousing Alex for a lesson in scrying, he settled back to watch the forming image of Goliath and Diane Maza on the turret. We're turning into petty eavesdroppers and voyeurs; you realize that, don't you Puck? Shut up, Owen. I'm trying to listen!
"…going on between you two?" demanded Diane.
"Nothing is happening!" growled the large gargoyle. Puck noted with some astonishment that the small woman who weighed a mere tenth of what that gargoyle could lift with one hand seemed to have Goliath completely cowed.
Mercilessly she bored through his evasions. Puck watched with great interest, and noted idly that Owen was busily filing everything he could away. When Owen noticed the scrutiny, he mumbled something about the necessity of always learning. Finally, the leader of the clan caved in to the indomitable will of Diane Maza.
Puck listened with great interest as Goliath outlined what had happened that night. Omitted, of course, was the nighttime experience that was at the true root of the guardian's troubled mind. Avalon's Jester had Alex adjust the image so that he could have a better view of Diane's eyes. Something glimmered there, and he was pretty sure that humans labeled it suspicion.
"So what aren't you telling me?" she demanded. Goliath's head jerked up in surprise, his eyes slightly wild. A deer in the headlights, growled Owen silently as Diane took a seat on the battlements and looked Goliath right in the eye. "Do you love my daughter, Goliath?"
His eyes flared with brilliant white light. "What right have you to ask that of…"
"I am her mother!" she roared, cutting him off mid-sentence. "My daughter is being crushed by depression because you are avoiding her! Now tell me why!"
Puck was impressed. Diane had unknowingly hit the right button to make Goliath spill what he had avoided telling her before. Diane was silent as Goliath spilled the bare bones of what had happened in that alternate world. Together, Puck and Owen tried to pierce the mind of Diane to discover her thoughts, only to come up against a formidable mental barrier. She's shielded! Owen's voice was a silent roar of fury in the Puck's mind. How'd she manage that? Shut up, Owen, the Puck shot right back. I think it's a gift from Coyote, but I can't tell for sure. I don't know my brother well enough to know his magic the moment I sense it. Now be quiet! I'm trying to listen to Diane!
"… your problem, Goliath," she was saying quietly. At his confused look, Diane clarified. "You feel guilty because you think you took advantage of my daughter. Goliath, you haven't slept with my daughter. That was a dream forged by this Titania you mentioned. And even if, while there, you did sleep with someone who looked like my daughter, remember, you were in a dream world. A world were different events had made a different present. I have no doubt that the Elisa of that dream loved your counterpart as much as my daughter loves you." Goliath's head came up from his chest, where it had been resting since he had told Diane all that had happened. "You love my daughter very much, and she loves you just as much," she continued. She cocked her head to one side. "You should tell her what happened." With that, she stood to leave.
Goliath's taloned hand grabbed hers. Wild eyes, filled with fear, locked with calm pools of brown. "I can't tell her!" he cried in a strangled voice. "She'd never understand!"
"You don't give my daughter enough credit, Goliath," replied Diane as she gently pulled her hand from his grip. She turned once more to go, but paused at the door. Without looking over her shoulder to where the distraught gargoyle stood, she fired a parting shot. Straight and true, it flashed to the huge form and pierced him to the depths of his soul. "If you don't tell her what happened, you could lose her forever."
Goliath stood alone, staring into the shadowed doorway that Diane had entered. A faint rumbling from above heralded the coming a rain. He stood motionless, letting the rain fall on him, and made no attempt to enter the castle.
"No Alex, it's ok," murmured the Puck in a soothing tone as he tried to calm his young charge. If he wasn't careful, the young mage would be casting love spells on Goliath and Elisa. Searching for a distraction, the elf's eyes fell upon the shimmering portal that had a few moments before displayed the little drama playing out on the battlements.
"Ok, young master," chuckled the Puck suddenly. "Why don't I show you how to fix a scrying on a person so you can track them wherever they go?" At the baby's obvious interest, two beings of great power, one ancient and one babe, settled in on the next lesson.
Diane sat on the couch in Elisa's apartment, leaning back against her husband. Peter looked a little tired. "Had a hard time keeping up with Elisa?" she asked sympathetically.
He nodded and was about to respond when a shadow outside the skylight cut him off. He nudged his wife and stood as Goliath opened the skylight and dropped softly to the floor. Before the large gargoyle could speak, Elisa emerged from her room. "Dad? Who is…" Her voice trailed off when she saw Goliath, and her lips thinned slightly.
"Peter, didn't you say you saw the most amazing thing in the park earlier?' asked Diane as she rose to her feet and snagged her coat. Peter took the hint and grabbed his own coat. Beth came out of the kitchen and quickly joined the little exodus from the apartment. In mere moments, Elisa and Goliath were alone in the apartment.
"May I sit?" he asked, knowing that if he did not, his body would begin to betray the feeling that her presence aroused. At her silent nod he sat on the couch where her parents had sat before. She came around and sat on the other sofa. Goliath hesitantly flexed his hands, trying to work up the courage to begin. The silence stretched. One minute. Two.
"What is it, Goliath?" asked Elisa in exasperation after the silence had reigned for nearly five minutes.
He jumped a little at the sound of her voice, then began to speak with great hesitation, almost stuttering over the words. "Please don't interrupt me while I explain. When I am finished, however, you should understand what has been happening this last week." After she nodded, agreeing to keep silent, he launched in with both feet.
He told how he had been knocked out that night at the raid, and when he had come to, he had been a human. Seeing her about to ask, he quickly continued, telling her that she had come into the room he'd awoken in and told him not to be to long getting out of bed or he'd be late for work. His description of the two children that were obviously theirs floored her. When he told her about his job, she nearly laughed. As she discovered the opinion of the gargoyles that her double had voiced, she was angry. Goliath's voice failed him for several moments then, before he began to describe what had happened that night.
"I was feeling incredibly tired, so I just took off my clothes and climbed into the bed, and was asleep in moments. I woke for a brief moment as that Elisa got into the bed, but she stayed on the other side. I remember feeling chilly, and began to shift, trying to warm myself. That's when it began. I found something warm and pulled it close." He looked up at this point, seeking her eyes. Stunned amazement burned there, as did a near sure knowledge of what he was about to say. "I was only half awake when it began. Your scent filled my nostrils and drove what little control I might have been able to exert on myself far away." His head fell to his chest and he refused to meet her eyes. "I found myself acting out things I had dreamed about and only came to full awareness after it was over. Then memory came flooding back and I saw everything with crystal clarity." His eyes turned to hers. "I love you, Elisa," he whispered, his voice filled with pain. "I felt as though I had taken advantage of you, and it didn't help when I learned it had all been just a dream spun by Titania." His eyes flared white for a brief moment as he remembered the anger he'd felt at once more being a pawn of the elves. "She told me that what I had seen was what would have been if I had been born human instead of gargoyle. And then when I saw you again just after that…" His voice trailed off and she remembered how swiftly he'd taken his leave of her.
"Where'd you go that night?" she asked, her eyes gentle.
A hoarse chuckle rippled from his throat. "I went to the park and dove into the water, hoping the cold water would help."
"Needed a cold shower, huh?" she asked sympathetically.
"Indeed," he whispered. His eyes once more met hers. "And then, every time you got close enough, I would scent you, and I would remember again…" Once more his voice trailed off and his eyes fell. For several long minutes, silence held reign in the small apartment.
A touch on his shoulder brought his eyes up again. Elisa stood before him. "I love you, too, Goliath," she whispered as tears fell from her eyes. "And I'm sorry I didn't make you tell me sooner."
"Why?" he asked, confused.
"Because then," Elisa answered, "I would have been able to do this." She bent down and gently kissed him. Goliath's mind flashed back to the night they had returned to the castle, to be there once more in their ancestral home. She'd kissed him that night, too. Elisa then pulled back a bit and looked into his eyes. Goliath was hesitant, but only until he saw the emotions that burned there. He knew those feeling quite well. He'd been denying them for a long time, but it seemed as though she had been in the same boat.
"Now," she said in an almost playful tone, "why don't you show me some of those things that you dreamed about, and I'll show you some of my dreams."
Goliath looked deep into her eyes, and saw only the overflowing love that was filling his entire body at that same moment. As he reached up and began to pull her to him, his voice rumbled from the depths of his soul. All of his love was poured into a single sentence, and it seared their bodies with the heat of the love there.
"You and I are one, now and forever!" Goliath pulled her to him and sealed his declaration with a kiss.
In the park, Peter and Diane walked with Beth, and unknowingly reached the place where Elisa had watched over Goliath for a day.
"Do you think that they'll be ok?" asked Beth, her concern for her sister clearly heard in her voice.
"Yes," answered her parents in unison. At the surprised look they got from their daughter, Peter smiled. Diane was the one who fielded the question, however.
"I had a little talk with Goliath earlier. He just needed to get something off of his chest before he and your sister would be able to realize just how much they love each other."
"I noticed it when they visited us in Arizona some month back, and Coyote confirmed my suspicions shortly after they left," continued Peter.
At this, Beth let the subject drop and turned the conversation to the classes she would be taking that semester at college.
In the castle's nursery, Puck was having Alex close the scrying spell that he'd used to spy on what was happening between Goliath and Elisa. The ancient fey felt something close to relief as he settled the young heir to two thrones into the crib. Happy. Puck jerked slightly and glared at the youngster. Confirmation, and irritation. Supposed to be sleeping. Agreement. So happy…Alexander's thread faded as his young body slipped into a deep sleep.
The Puck gently tucked the covers up around the sleeping babe and turned off the main lights. As he left, he couldn't help looking out the window to the stars. "I'd always thought that Father's Law forbade just the sort of thing that I've done in the last week." Not receiving an answer from the distant stars, and not having really expected one, he shook his head and let Owen take over again.
The blond man left the nursery and closed the door with a nearly inaudible click and headed for his rooms. He had a busy day tomorrow.
On Avalon, Oberon sat back in his chair, the Mirror showing the form of Owen Burnett walking through the castle halls. "Yes, my Law does forbid just this sort of thing," he growled.
"Oberon's Law has no bearing on me, remember?" came a playful voice from behind him.
"No, Titania, it does not," replied the Lord of Avalon.
And far away, in an apartment in Manhattan, two soul mates found the love they had been afraid to confront, and realized that it didn't matter that they were so different…for love is blind.
The beginning…